El heroon de Aptera (Creta) y sus inscripciones

Abstract

In Aptera, one of the most important city-states in Crete, during a recent excavation carried out by the greek archaelogist V. Niniou-Kindeli, part of a heroon was discovered near the main entrance to the city, between the old path and the western side fortification. A group of cist tombs and another isolated pit grave, which had been plundered in late antiquity, can be dated indirectly by the pottery and by the inscriptions reused on its walls, from the Classical period to the second century A.C. A second group of cist tombs can be dated to the 6-7th C. A.D. by a lamp of a type well known in Gortyna and other places. Between the two groups there are five pillars with moulding on its base and on its crown. Four of them bear inscriptions and the same could be said about the fifth of which only the lower part remains. It must also be said that a smaller corner stone with a complete inscription was found reused as a wall in one of the most recent tombs. Amongst the pillars, the remains of several ritual pyres dating from the end of the 1st century B.C. to the 2nd A.D. were found. In the pyres many large bowls were used, as well as vessels of liquid, at the same time remains of burnt fruit can be found. To a similar ritual belongs a dense deposit of numerous Hellenistic lamps from the first and second centuries B.C., which were found inside an irregular shaped grave along with some lead projectiles and different sized stone bullets. In the unexcavated area to the South of the pillars, the base of a building has been discovered, as well as part of an unfluted column with Ionic base. Between the pillars and the unexcavated site many fallen architectonic elements were also found. All these findings prove the existence of a funeral monument, probably related to the heroon.